WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.: When AJ Allmendinger saw leader Austin Cindric pit in the closing laps of Saturday afternoon’s Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, the Kaulig Racing driver thought he had his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win in the bag.
But, a gallant charge and 19 lap fresher tires on Cindric’s put on a fancy two-lap battle towards the checkered flag – which ultimately saw Cindric earn his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win and Allmendinger settle for second in his second Xfinity Series race of the season.
While Allmendinger was able to keep Cindric at bay with two laps remaining, the No. 22 MoneyLion Ford Mustang caught Allmendinger in the inner loop, where the two drivers exchanged shoves, but Allmendinger overdrove Turn 7 coming to the white flag lap allowing Cindric to outduel the veteran driver entering 1 and hang on for his first career Xfinity Series victory.
Approximately an hour and a half after the race though, it didn’t matter. NASCAR Xfinity Series director Wayne Auton announced that Allmendinger failed post-race inspection due to a rear height violation. His second place and stage finishes did not count from Saturday’s race and he will be scored with a 37th place finish after the team entry was found to be too low on both the right-rear and left-rear corners.
“I think it made all the difference,” said Allmendinger of Cindric’s tire difference. “We were pretty close on speed overall and on the restart, I saw nobody was behind me and I said, ‘oh my god, this is going to work out perfect’ and then I saw the 22 behind us and that wasn’t the car I wanted behind me.”
For the second straight year in the Finger Lakes of New York, Allmendinger finished second. Last year, in a one-off deal with GMS Racing, he finished second after starting fourth.
Allmendinger wasn’t going to give the win away though, he made Cindric work for it.
“Congrats to Aust
in. That whole 22 team, but him especially. He went in there and nudged me, that was fair and I went in and nudged him, you race how you get raced and I felt like we both tried to be clean with each other and that’s what racing is all about.
“All the congrats goes to him. He deserved it. He was on it the whole race. He drove the wheels off that thing at the end to get by me.”
Once Cindric passed the No. 10 Death Wish Coffee Chevrolet Camaro for the lead, Allmendinger, a two-time Xfinity winner knew he didn’t enough to get back by for the win.
I was out of tires,” added Allmendinger. “That’s all I had. I’m just disappointed. I wish I could have gotten a win for Kaulig Racing, Death Wish Coffee, LeafFilter, everyone’s that’s part of this race team.
“We were close. As soon as KB (Kyle Busch) went out, everybody’s eyes opened back up like ‘okay, here we go. When you take tires that it’s all about getting lucky. If you get on the restart where you can get by a ton of cars it makes that strategy work. He did it, so congrats to him.”
Saturday’s race marked the second race for AJ Allmendinger at Kaulig Racing this season. He drove for the team at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in July and finished third. The team later lost the finish by failing post-race inspection. They were credited with a 38th place finish.
Allmendinger, 37, will return to the organization next week at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
I can go into a full description of why it was low from contact early in the race on a restart. The issues we struggled with after cause track bar mount was bent and oil tank getting hung on the coil of the spring the rest of the race. But just doesnt f***ing matter. 💔💔💔💔 https://t.co/pUx2OI6yJM
— AJ Allmendinger (@AJDinger) August 3, 2019
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
